So there you go, the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup. It crackled, it fizzed, it kinda meandered slowly and then came to a complete standstill while lots of people looked at replays. Here’s the good, the bad and the downright unusual of the first 48 hours.
Brotherly love
There is nothing like twitching with delight when your brethren drops a clanger. And Friday night showed it doesn’t matter who you are, if your brother cocks up, you should enjoy it. Harry Wales looked decidedly nervous opening up the competition with a rousing speech; his voice certainly belied his feelings and at one point, on the word ‘cup’, his voice slipped into a noticeably higher tone.
At that exact moment, the producer cut to Prince William high up in the Twickers royal box, who, on hearing the gaffe, turned with a look of unmistakable delight on his face and searched for others around him to confirm what H had done. Of course, all but one inside HQ instantaneously forgave dear old Harry for the slip. The future king is still leaving falsetto voicemails.
Peyper picks a procrastination
A wonderful referee as standard, Jaco Peyper took control of England vs Fiji and decided he couldn’t do it alone. He turned to the TMO for a combined twenty minutes to replay every try-scoring moment. It took all the sting out of the game and if anyone new had been tuning in, they can only have been perplexed by all the standing around. Social media exploded in a hashtagged outrage, whilst Peyper contemplated quantum mechanics and the general meaning of life. Well you would, wouldn’t you? With so much time on your hands.
Georgian grunt
Georgia started the trend of the weekend, that seeming underdogs wouldn’t really play ball. Gorgodze and friends rumbled through Tonga and look a good enough side to take third in their group behind Argentina and New Zealand. The G-men know what they do well; keep the ball close; use Gorgodze; act hairy (although not necessarily in that order). Their rugby won’t win any beauty contests, but then again, neither will their team.
Banzai!
Japan is responsible for some truly memorable additions to our world: Chicken Katsu Curry; Ryu from Street Fighter; outrageous and somewhat dangerous game shows; and Pokemon. With the Cherry Blossoms’ magical victory over the Springboks, the (saké) cup overfloweth.
Brighton played host as Eddie Jones masterminded a wonderful victory over his former team and grown men cried. Japan’s second try was a proper training paddock carve-up and the decision to turn down three points and go for the win will stay in rugby folklore for a long time. Scotland can’t be looking forward to be playing them in front of a red and white shed at Gloucester this Wednesday. If only I’d got Japan in the office sweepstake.
Uruguayan offers outside
Turning up at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is difficult enough for tier one sides. But when the assembled ITV crew start scoffing at your line out moves and remark at just how small you are, you know you’re in for a tough afternoon. Uruguay, however, were having none of it. Spurred on by the laughter, the South Americans won a number of admirers with an approach that worked with what they’d got.
There are two unusual moments that stand out. The first was when it looked as though one of their players asked his opposite number outside for a fight. Having clashed off the ball, the man in blue gestured quite clearly that he’d like to take their disagreement outside the walls of the stadium. When this was to happen was unclear (there was game of rugby to attend to) but such a show of old school bravado was as refreshing as it was bizarre.
Equally pleasing was a run late on from their loose head prop, Alejo Corral. The ball found itself in his grasp and he, in turn, found an unusual amount of space. Corral sprinted like your dad would have done when he joined in at the rounders at your Auntie’s 40th. It was mesmerising and ungainly in equal measure. It will also be, in no uncertain terms, his most treasured moment in a rugby shirt. I shouldn’t have found it funny. I’m sorry.
Ka mate
Conrad Smith and Richie McCaw ended up in the bin, the Argentinians played out of their skins and yet New Zealand still opened up their 2015 RWC with a win. Unintended poetry aside, the black-booted ones look tasty and even though this weekend has shown that upsets are possible, we all went to bed on Sunday night with the sobering thought that taking the cup off the Kiwis is going to be incredibly tricky. With their terrifying war dance, uniform approach to footwear selection and a replacements’ bench that would get in anyone else’s first team, the All Blacks look like champions elect. Not as much fun now is it?
Until we meet again!
By Sam Roberts (@samrobertsrugby)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
This needs to be said again –
Very sad day! – a black day even!! – to see such an illustrious player as Richard McRaw treated so badly. I’m disgusted – never has he put a foot wrong – never has he crossed the line and now this – a black mark on his otherwise immaculate career. He even said Wayne Barnes was ” a top bloke” during the week – then to be stabbed in the back by him!! Some bastard that WB. Liked the way the crowed booed at Barnes every time Richard’s face was shown – hopefully that will make him think twice the next time!
DDD
“Pacific not Aran!”
For Bizarre, I’d add hearing La Marseilles ringing round Wembley during the AB v Arg game yesterday! The Argentina fans certainly know how to provide an atmosphere for a game.
As for Hansen’s complaining about the crowd boo-ing McCaw, he needs to be more relaxed. McCaw’s trip was truly cynical.
Swing Low Sweet Chariot reverberating around Brighton was equally as puzzling.
I don’t have a particular issue with the use of replays. At the end of the day, it avoided a big mistake by disallowing what looked like good tries, in three of the games.
My issue is the amount of times we have to watch the same replay. I was at Twickenham on Friday evening and the disallowed try was played over and over and over, with every angle showing the same – obvious – result. No try – move on!
They need to cut down the amount of times it was used to assess foul play as well but you are spot on about the amount of times each replay is shown. Ref should butt in and say i think i’ve seen enough
Completely agree with this. My other issue is with referees giving tries, and then taking them back.
I was at Twickenham for France vs Italy and there was one try that was given, then taken back, then given. Then as Michelak was about to take his conversion, he was quickly stopped by the ref and it was disallowed again.
For me, once the ref has given the try, the TMO should stay out of it.
Equally, how the ref could have given the Matawalu try when he was so far away, knowing he was being tackled my two men whilst stretching for the line is beyond me. That should have gone straight to the TMO, looked at one, no try, simple.
One of the great things s0o far has been the crowds. Not only have the stadiums looked full, even for games like Georgia vs Tonga, but the crowds really look like they are getting involved.
I was only watching on TV but the noise at that game, the Japan SA one and Arg NZ sounded like the whole of the crowd were really getting into it, not just a core of supporters from one side or another
Been a very good World Cup, blown open by Japan who have made everyone believe that anything is possible.
Would agree on most of the points mentioned. Would even suggest that Georgia will be targeting their next game against Argentina hard, as if they win that they’ll all but be in the Quarter-finals, given New Zealand will beat everyone and everyone (should) beat Namibia.
Don’t think many people had Georgia and Japan down as potential quarter-finalists, but both are definitely in the running.
Georgia have (literally and figuratively ) huge potential – they have proper state backing and a great talent base – The IRB needs to think about how teams like Georgia can play more competitive games against Tier 1 nations – i am no advocate for promotion and relegation from the six nations, and a European championship every 4 years would probably be too much for the rugby calendar to take, but something needs to be done